This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Assassin’s Creed III makes murder tedious: game review

The chase gets cumbersome, for several reasons, in Assassin’s Creed III. (AP)

By Matt DeMersSpecial to the Star

Fri., Nov. 2, 2012

Assassin’s Creed III

(out of 4)

$59.99

Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (reviewed), Windows (Nov.20), WiiU (Nov.18)

Rated M

Article Continued Below

Many gamers remember the first Assassin’s Creed game as a bit of a false start. After receiving a large amount of hype for a then-unproven franchise, it drew ire for its repetitive and downright boring mission structure. However, years later, Assassin’s Creed II came out and dashed those problems away, improving on nearly every facet of the game. Brotherhood and Revelations, two expansion packs to the sequel, came out shortly after, fleshing out the story while setting the stage for this month’s Assassin’s Creed III.

Gamers who are looking for the same monumental jump in quality, however, are unlikely to find it. Assassin’s Creed III suffers from an infestation of small, annoying bugs that compound, creating a large, glaring hole in an otherwise great game.

Take for instance, the textures. At nearly every turn here, you’ll find that Ubisoft included a mesh-like gradient for stylistic purposes. This would be fine if it did not look like someone used the spray-can tool from MS Paint in order to craft them. While they were likely included to add to the under-construction virtual reality “style” of the game, they come off distracting, out-of-place and seem largely unnecessary. The game’s otherwise-wonderful scenery and character models suffer as a result.

A related set of problems involve cutscenes and player interaction. The player controls both Connor, a member of the Assassin order in the 1700s, and Desmond Miles, the protagonist from the series thus far. Sadly, those models tend to look dead; their eyes loll in their sockets, their faces remain static. Desmond’s eyeballs shift to an unnerving all-black at times, and lip-syncing doesn’t match up. For every beautiful moment (like seeing your shadow on the ground while perched on a high ledge, like a pre-America Batman) there is one that makes the game look downright sloppy.

This is compounded by the same control bugs that have been plagued the series from its inception, and strangely, they seem to have worsened. There are times when Connor/Desmond simply won’t do what you want. An attempt to cross a small gap will result in Connor dramatically leaping to a faraway ledge; an attempt to slit a throat silently will raise an alarm for the entire city, and sadly the guards seem to be more capable and tenacious than the series’ previous iterations.

(The game also likes to hide things: the player isn’t notified that he has a horse whistle until hours in, leading to boring time spent running from place to place.)

Spending your time fleeing can be a major timesink, especially since safe havens and guard distractions aren’t explicitly obvious. Instead, Ubisoft made an effort to make every group of people a hiding spot, eliminating “safe zones” altogether, but in most cases a guard will still pick out an all-white Assassin, extending the chase.

The third title’s story meets the franchise’s standards, and when things are working right (like the brilliant sailing sequences), it’s extremely satisfying. However, the plethora of minor bugs and more glaring, faults — like a five-hour introduction before the “real” game starts — make this title hard to recommend until possible price reductions and bugfix patches take effect, they may then find themselves satisfying that revolutionary itch.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com